Malala Yousufzai told world leaders that they were failing Syria’s children, as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate spent her 18th birthday on Sunday on the Syrian border.
As she legally became an adult, the teenager who was shot by militants in her native Pakistan for campaigning for girls’ rights, opened a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
The Malala Yousufzai All-Girls School is to offer education and skills training to girls aged 14 to 18.
Photo: EPA
“I am honored to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria,” Yousufzai said in a statement received in London. “I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict.”
“Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them,” she said.
“On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world: You are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria’s children. This is a heartbreaking tragedy — the world’s worst refugee crisis in decades,” Yousufzai said.
Yousufzai later met with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam at his home in Beirut, accompanied by her father and Noura Jumblatt, head of the Kayany Foundation, who invited Yousufzai to visit.
“Syrian children are suffering the most, being refugees for more than four years, deprived of education,” Yousufzai told BBC News.
“The worst thing is that the international community and world leaders are not paying attention and that’s what drives me to come here and celebrate my birthday and to say to world leaders: You need to focus on it and you need to invest here, otherwise it will be a generation lost,” she added.
Lebanon hosts nearly 1.2 million registered Syrian refugees, although the total number in the country might be even higher.
The influx has strained Lebanon, which has a population of 4 million.
Beirut has prevented the establishment of official refugee camps, giving rise to informal settlements in rural areas known as “tented settlements.”
Yousufzai was flown to Britain for treatment after the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her in October 2012, and now lives in Britain with her family.
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